


Brighten My Northern Sky

by twoshipstiedup



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas Fluff, Falling In Love, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Mush, London, M/M, Romance, side Ziam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-17 23:49:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21518467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twoshipstiedup/pseuds/twoshipstiedup
Summary: Ser·en·dip·i·tythe occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial wayorHarry, Louis, a phone number and fate
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 13
Kudos: 152





	Brighten My Northern Sky

**Author's Note:**

> Just a tiny little piece of Christmas fluff based on a tiny little piece of the movie Serendipity. Happy Holidays ❤️

Louis blew on his hands as he stepped inside the doorway of the Lamb and Flag pub, which was decked out in an excessive amount of holly, and toasty warm thanks to the wood burning fireplace in the center of it. He did love the winter, and specifically December for many reasons (none of them being that it was his birthday month, at least not anymore. Once you hit thirty, well as the saying goes, it’s all downhill from here) but deep down he always thought he should have been a summer baby. He’d take the sun on his face and the feel of sand between his toes over having to wear socks to cover his frozen ones any day of the week.

This day of the week however he was in snowy London, freezing his bollocks off and in need of a drink with friends after an unsuccessful afternoon of attempted Christmas shopping. He scanned his eyes through the relatively large crowd, it seemed like everyone had the same idea to beg off work a few hours early to get their shopping done, or start on it in Louis’ case, finally catching a glimpse of two immaculately coiffed heads of hair tucked into a corner booth. 

He made his way through the maze of happy faces, shaking out of his puffy coat to hang it on a hook outside the booth and slid onto the worn out wooden seat with his one purchase in hand. “You know, only the two of you could have hair that looks this good in the winter months, I bet you styled it around your beanies and everything,”

The two perfectly put together people sat across from him were his business partners Zayn Malik and Liam Payne, whom have never had a single hair out of place since the day they met ten years ago. Technically they met at a Lady Gaga concert and the business relationship came a few years later, which was now a thriving custom furniture and interior design company.

Zayn exhaled a deep breath, accompanied by a fond roll of the eyes, “Says the man who took off his jacket only to have yet another jacket on underneath.”

Louis firmly shook his head, tapping a finger to his tartan covered chest. “ _This_ is a jacket, that over there is a coat,”

Liam sent a confused look Zayn’s way, as if he was the beacon of intelligence in this pointless debacle. “What’s the difference?”

Louis intervened, because honestly. “I don’t know, this one’s thinner and a part of my outfit, and—” he let out a huff of breath, reaching out for the one full pint on the table, “and I don’t even know why I’m explaining how layering works right now, is this mine?”

Zayn gave him an amused smirk back, pushing the frothy ale towards him. “Yeah, have at it.”

“Cheers, thanks,” he toasted as he wiped the thin layer of foam off his lips, tilting the glass towards them.

Liam grinned, lifting his own glass to return the gesture. “So how’d you fare with your shopping?”

He leaned back against the hard wall of the booth, rubbing his hands along the tops of his thighs to dry off the condensation from his pint. “Ah it was shit, I’m totally going to end up being gift card guy again this year.” He tried not to make a habit of it, but when you grew up with as many sisters as he did, any denomination of money to buy clothes or makeup was a hit.

Zayn jut his chin out at the table in front of Louis, “What’s with the book then?”

Louis briefly glanced down, fiddling with the cover absently. “Oh it’s Lottie’s favorite, I saw it in the window of a secondhand shop and picked it up as a stocking stuffer. I figured I should get one thoughtful thing at the very least.”

“Hey, hold on a sec,” Liam pushed his hand to the side, sliding the book out from under it to flip the cover fully open. “There’s a number in here,”

They all leaned in to peer at the scratch of numbers and the loopy ‘call me sometime, Harry’ with a smiley face punctuating the statement looming beside it. Zayn tilt his head to the side, a contemplative look washing over his face as he pushed his empty pint glass off to the side. “You should call it.”

Liam immediately nodded along to agree, as if he would have taken any other stance on the matter at hand. He and Zayn had been together so long now that they basically shared the same (irritating) brain. “I agree, Louis, you have to call this number,”

Louis coughed into his fist as he choked on their persistence, thumbing the wayward droplet of amber liquid off his chin. “Uh no, I absolutely do not.”

Liam pressed on, clearly undeterred. “What’s the harm? He could be single after all,”

Louis arched an eyebrow, whether it was in amusement or annoyance at this point, he couldn’t be sure. “Am I to assume that one, you think times are so dire that I need to call a number from a random secondhand book in order to meet someone, and two, that you’re assuming the person who left this in here is gay?”

“Lou, ask yourself this - what are the odds a straight dude left his digits in a Jane Austen novel?”

Louis pointedly stared at that two of them, giving them a disappointed mother shake of the head a moment later as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “You know what, I am going to call it because the stereotyping happening at this table right now is truly on another level,”

Zayn waved him off, offering a kind smile and a thank you to the blushing bar maid who had just dropped off their fresh pints. “Oh please, as if we haven’t heard your vodka infused Shawn Mendes hot takes a million times.”

Louis rolled his eyes towards the ceiling in defeat. Damn, they definitely had him there. “Fine, but I’m calling it anyways just to prove you wrong.”

Liam hugged an arm around Zayn’s shoulders, giving him a quick victory peck on the cheek. He pointed a triumphant finger up in the air, “And if _we’re_ proved right, you owe us drinks, or even better, dinner if he’s hot,”

Louis started to ask how they’d even know that from a phone call when he decided to give up on logic, because none of this had any to begin with. He picked up the phone again and punched in the numbers. “Here goes nothing,” he mumbled to himself.

Much to his surprise someone picked up on the third ring, sounding tentative, understandably. Who even answered unknown numbers these days? “Hello?”

Louis’ eyes widened as he met Liam and Zayn’s own comically bugged out ones, their hands clutched together as they waited with baited breath. “Uh hi, yeah, is this Harry?”

There was a hesitant pause, and in that time Louis could have sworn he heard the same Mariah Carey Christmas tune playing in the background that was occupying his own space. “It is, what’s this regarding?”

Louis closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. Why and how did he constantly get talked into idiotic things by his idiotic friends? “This is going to sound really strange, but I bought this book today and it had your number in it, so wanted to know if you maybe lost it, or...” he trailed off because he didn’t really have a list of excuses ready as to why this book would have ended up where it did.

After that it felt like time stood still, and in that time he heard a very loud _‘what the fuck’_ which was followed up by a very hard smack against his forearm. His eyes popped back open, and as his held up his free hand to smack Liam back, he brought it right back down when he saw them both frantically pointing a finger towards the bar.

A man with messy brown waves had clearly bolted up from his stool and was staring down at his phone, his face mostly pale save for the bright red flush high on his prominent cheekbones. Louis blinked back at Zayn and Liam’s now devilish grins and inwardly groaned. Fuck’s sake.

Finally a muffled (and slightly embarrassed) voice came back on the line. “No, I definitely did not lose that, if it was in a shop it’s yours to keep.”

“Oh, alright, that’s good, I just wanted to be sure.”

“Yes, I’m quite sure. Thank you again.”

He quickly hung up before Louis could get another word in. He furrowed his brow in confusion before shrugging it off and shoving his phone back into his jeans.

“Alright, so you’re definitely going to talk to that guy now,”

Louis grabbed at his pint, downing almost half of it with a chuckle, “Yeah, so he can think I’m a bloody lunatic? No thank you.”

Zayn scrambled out of his side of the booth, moving with a speed Louis had never seen in all their years of friendship. He tugged on Louis’ arm, manhandling him up to his feet to point his body in the direction of the bar.

“Lou, by some gay twist of fate you ended up with a guy’s phone number and the guy looks like _that_. Do you understand what I’m saying to you here?”

“I guess?”

“You guess?” Zayn stood behind Louis, pinching him in the side and squaring his shoulders up when he tried to squirm away. “I don’t care if he laughs in your face, you’re going over there to at least see what happens,”

“And if he’s single and says yes to a date, we’ll even buy _you_ dinner,” Liam offered to up the ante.

It’s not that Louis lacked confidence or was terrible at picking up men, in fact he’s been a little too good at it throughout the years, the most notable of them being his early twenties. However, he’d like to think that he’s grown out of having random hookups on weeknights, because honestly who has the energy.

But, he may be willing to overlook his own self-imposed rule to find out why this Harry character was leaving his number in a special edition of classic literature. 

“Alright, alright, you’re on Malik’s,”

“You know we’re not married right?”

Louis turned on his heel with a wink.

“Then I guess you’re going to owe me a wedding _and_ a dinner eventually.”

+

Harry calmly sat back down and carefully placed his phone face down on the bar, thankfully remembering that he had just gotten a new one as he didn’t fancy a drama induced cracked screen any time soon.

He also willed his heart to stop beating as fast as it was because he also didn’t fancy a drama induced seizure. He picked up the glass of wine in front of him, toasting to his own regret. “Well, I have to move to Pluto, it’s decided,”

“You could, but it’s mostly made up of ice and wind, technically you can’t even land on it,”

Harry closed his eyes and rubbed at his temples with a heavy sigh, “Niall, just because you’re a science teacher does not mean you need to be this literal, can’t I just have this?”

“Facts are facts Harold. Who was that anyways?”

Harry met his friends curious blue eyes, biting at the side of his lip as he racked his brain for a non-pathetic answer, “Oh um—

Clearly he took too long, because Niall instantly shushed him and rubbed his hand like he was a five year old in need of coddling, which might not be that far off. “It’s okay H, we’ve all been there,”

Harry’s eyes shot back up from where he had briefly distracted himself by comparing Niall’s bitten down nails to his freshly painted ones. “Excuse me?”

Niall leaned in closer, lowering is voice to a sort of whisper. “You know…an awkward hookup,”

“How dare you Niall Horan!”

He sat back incredulously. “What?! I’m just saying it sounded like it could have been a Grindr date gone wrong!”

Harry shot him an indignant look at he brought the glass of wine back up to his lips, the silky pinot curling warmth into his stomach. “When have you ever known me to use a hookup app?”

“Uh yeah, never, so please excuse me for hoping my best mate was getting some,” he pursed his lips, his eyes brightening with a thought a moment later. “Or giving some. Or both, whatever floats your boat my friend.”

Harry dropped his head into hands, shaking it there in misery. “Niall I am begging you, please stop talking,”

“What’s wrong with a little cock talk between friends? I’m being supportive!”

Harry slid his hands down his face, fully prepared to reach over and strangle Niall with one of them when he was met with a very different pair of bemused blue eyes twinkling at him.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Harry swallowed around a lump of incoherent words as he pondered if it were possible to drop dead from mortification. First there was the phone call where he found out the terrific news that his long ago crush gave away a book with his number in it, never to be heard from again, and now this insanely good looking man stumbled right into their conversation about his nonexistent sex life. This as they say, was not it.

Sadly he did not die, instead having to awkwardly move his body to the side to make space at the bar. “Sorry, we’re in the way here, did you need to get a drink?”

His eyes crinkled as he laughed, a tiny hint of pink spotting his cheeks beneath his stupidly sexy scruff. “Actually, yes, but I was hoping to get one with you,”

Niall choked on his pint, a creamy mustache attached to his upper lip as he barked out a ‘holy shit’

He flushed again, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck. “Sorry, let me back this up,” he smiled at Harry, holding out his hand. “I’m Louis,”

All Harry could do in return was rapidly blink and shake his hand back with a dopey smile on his own face. What was even happening here? “Harry.”

“I know, I actually just spoke to you on the phone,” and just as he noticed Harry’s panic when he finally started connecting the dots, he pressed on, holding a hand over his heart. “I swear on my life I’m not some crazy stalker, I legitimately just picked up that book with your number in it as a Christmas gift, and—

Niall swiftly intervened, slapping an excited hand on Louis’ shoulder, a person he just met, but he couldn’t be bothered with formalities. “You have _the_ book?!”

“You _know_ about the book?”

He threw his head back and cackled. “Are you kidding me? I was there for the OG book plan, Harold and I go way back,”

Louis crossed his arms over his chest and Harry didn’t want to be thirsty, but how in the world did he just walk around looking like this, in a turtleneck no less. “Okay, now I really need to know this story,”

Harry darted his eyes towards Niall, who was giving him all kinds of go for it signals with his hands and eyes, as subtly as a loud Irishman could. He nodded with a small smile, toying with the cross pendant hanging on his chest, and smiled a bit bigger when Louis’ eyes followed the movement. “Alright, I’ll stay for a drink.”

Louis’ eyebrows shot up in surprise, a delighted smile turning up the corners of his lips. “Honestly wasn’t expecting that, but cool, alright. I’ve got a table over there if that suits you?”

Harry nodded, thumbing at the bar behind him. “Absolutely, I’ll just grab the drinks. Is a pint okay, or would you like something else?”

“A pint is great, thanks.” He backed away with a cheeky wink in Niall’s direction, “Thanks as well mate.”

Niall cackled much too loudly again, sending him back a thumbs up and jumped off his stool to start bundling back up. “Fucking hell, after all this time the book finally paid off, I mean look at him, he’s way hotter than Wes,” he then schooled his face into an angry expression, but as usual, it was hard to take him seriously. “Who, for the record, is a twat for obviously giving that book away.”

Harry had to agree with him on both accounts. Louis was small and compact, yet stood tall with an air of authority, his outfit was stylish and thoughtfully put together, and god if he didn’t love a man with a scratchy, peppery beard. His thighs were throbbing just thinking about it.

And yes, Wes absolutely was a giant twat.

“I guess the whole good things come to those who wait is kind of true after all,”

“It absolutely is, and you deserve this.” Niall stepped in front of him, pulling him into a cuddly hug. “See you at work tomorrow, or you know, take a day if you need to recover,” he tickled at Harry’s sides to empathize his ridiculousness.

Harry shooed his hands away, rolling his eyes, “Jesus, is your mind ever out of the gutter?”

“Nope. You should really join me down there, it gets lonely just being me and the clown from IT,”

Harry shook his head, his sides tittering with laughter. “Go home you nut.”

“I’m going, but seriously, at least kiss him, do it for me Harold!”

Harry watched him snake through the ever growing crowd of people in the front of the pub and turned back to place their drink orders, unable to fathom this turn of events. He was about to spend the rest of his afternoon on a pseudo date with a handsome stranger.

“It’s a bloody Christmas miracle.”

+

Because this plan had been Zayn and Liam’s creation in the first place, they had already left by the time Louis got back to the table, and the honest truth was that he should really be thanking them for kick starting this whole thing. He may have been many things, but he would like to think he was not an idiot, and passing up a chance to find out more about Harry, who had enchanted him within two seconds of speaking to him would definitely be in the idiot category.

He somehow defied the laws of science by being adorable and hot at the same time, something that shouldn’t even be a thing, but up until an hour ago calling random strangers on the phone hadn’t been a thing for Louis either, so anything was truly possible.

Louis could only solidify his previous statement as Harry cautiously made his way over to the table with their drinks in hand and a rosy, shy flush on his cheeks. He gently placed the glasses down and turned to hang his coat next to Louis’, which after seeing the label on the sleeve gave him the first question he wanted to ask as Harry situated himself across from him.

“So, can I ask you, or I guess, make an educated guess about something?”

Harry’s forehead creased in confusion while his nose did this adorable scrunchy thing, and Louis had a feeling he would be overusing that word thoroughly for the rest of their time together. “Oh, uh, sure. Go ahead,”

Louis shook his head, sending what was hopefully a soft, reassuring smile his way. “It’s nothing bad, I promise, I’m just a bit intrigued – your job, are you an artist?” he stole a quick sip from his pint to hide his laugh, “If you have job that is, one can never be too sure these days,”

Harry had the right mind to look slightly offended, but he barked out a laugh as well, which was the affect Louis was going for. He wanted to make him feel comfortable. “Yes, I am employed thank you very much, but I’m curious as to why you think I’m an artist? Because, no, I’m not, I’m an English teacher.”

Louis narrowed his eyes at him, the shock rolling through his system. “Are you fucking with me?”

Harry’s bright laugh radiated throughout their booth, wrapping around them both like a cozy woolen blanket. “No, I’m fairly certain I have discuss the importance of Shakespeare with a group of year twelves tomorrow morning.”

“It’s just…”Louis scratched at his beard, a surprised chuckle falling from his lips, “well the Gucci coat and the painted nails kind of threw me off, I thought for sure you were a hipster Soho painter or something,”

Harry fanned his hands out in front of him, wiggling his fingers with a lop sided smile, “Are teachers not supposed to have painted nails?”

“Oh no, I think it’s very cool, in fact if I had a teacher that looked like you when I was in school I would have spent half my time wanking in the toilets.”

With that came another laugh, another sip of wine, a deeper red flush. “Well thank you, I am equal parts flattered and horrified, I very much hope that none of my students think of me that way,”

Louis leaned in closer, meeting his eyes with a serious face. “I hate to break it to you Harry, but they’ve all thought about you that way, they’re hormonal teenagers with a hot teacher.”

Harry sighed and rolled his eyes, but the smile still hadn’t left his face. He brought his arms up to rest on the table, his rings glinting in the light as he pushed the bottom of his glass around in a circle. “Alright enough about me, what do you do?”

“Um, my friends and I have a shop, not too far from here actually. They, Zayn and Liam, do interior design and I make custom furniture.” Louis felt his stomach jump when he noticed Harry’s eyes flit to where his fingers were tapping along the side of his pint. A benefit of working with your hands is that people always assumed you were good with them. And he didn’t want to brag, but he’s had nothing but rave reviews so far.

“That’s so cool,” the sides of Harry’s lips quirked up as he took another sip of wine. He absently licked the wetness from them after, nearly giving Louis an aneurism while he did so. “Would it be lame to reference Sex and the City right now?”

“How so?”

The tips of Harry’s ears turned red as he blew out a laugh, “Just that Aiden made furniture and had his own shop. He was always my favorite guy on the show.”

Louis wanted to offer himself to be Harry’s new favorite, but he didn’t’ think they were quite there yet. Then he remembered what he wanted to talk about earlier, and now he was even more eager to find out about it. “Alright, so now that I know you’re an English teacher the Jane Austen book makes sense, but I am dying to know what the rest of the story is,”

Harry groaned and closed his eyes as if to momentarily collect himself. When he opened them again he assessed Louis’ face, like he was about to tell him one of his deepest secrets and maybe he was. “This is deeply embarrassing, but you’re kind of a part of it now,” he took a sip of liquid courage and soldiered on. “A year or so ago there was this guy Wes that was temping as a footie coach at our school,” he paused, holding a hand out towards his previously vacated bar stool. “By ours, I mean Niall and I, he’s also a teacher at the school. Anyways, Wes and I had this mild back and forth flirtation going on, or so I thought, and on the last day of the school year I had come up with this bright idea to leave him my number in my favorite book, thinking you know, it was cute, and I guess since you have it now I was wrong,” he downed another healthy gulp of wine, grimacing around it. “And that, is my very, very sad story.”

Louis felt the immediate spark of irritation strumming throughout his veins, but at the same time felt triumphant because clearly this Wes guy was a massive knob for passing up on this gorgeous, lovely man across from him. “Harry, if I may offer my humble opinion, I think your gesture was sweet and thoughtful, so it’s his loss, truly.”

“I appreciate that, thank you.” He finished off his last bit of wine, sending Louis a regretful look, “I would love to stay for another, but since it’s nearing winter break I have a bunch of papers that need grading by tomorrow morning.”

Louis smacked a hand to his forehead, the light bulb in his dim brain going off. “Fuck me, I am such an arsehole, here I was inviting you for a drink and I didn’t even buy you one!”

Harry stood to his feet with a laugh, shrugging his posh coat up over his shoulders. “That is definitely not a word I would associate with you, and it’s fine, really,”

Louis slid out of the booth as well, reaching up for his third layer, “Let me walk you out at least,”

“Alright.”

He followed closely behind Harry, his hand itching to reach up and touch the small of his back to guide him through the large groups of warms bodies. They finally reached the front door, stepping out into a whoosh of frosty winter air and it was there under the twinkling colored lights that Louis finally noticed Harry’s black Vans. He kind of loved the stark contrast between them and his (surely) two thousand pound coat.

Harry stood there shuffling back and forth on his feet in an attempt to stay warm, watching Louis with a quiet shyness that crumbled into sunny surprise when Louis blurted out, “Can I see you again?”

Louis scrubbed a hand down his face, biting back a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I’m usually a lot better at this. What I meant to say is that we’re having a holiday party at the store tomorrow night and I’d quite like it if you could come,” Louis paused, contemplating his words. He tried once more, hoping this time he got it right. “If you want to come, that is,”

The response was thankfully immediate as Harry nodded, his dimple popping out and fuck. It was, as predicted, adorable. “I’d love to.”

Louis held up the infamous book, shaking it with a smile, “Well, I have your number,”

“You’re going to keep that?”

He brought the book back down, protectively holding it to his chest as he took a step towards Harry. “How could I not?” Two more steps and he was inches away from him, so close that he could feel the body heat between them. Louis stood up on his tip toes, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek that he covered with his hand on the way back down.

“It’s my story now.”

+

Harry blindly reached for the door of their Uber as he quickly checked his hair in the rearview mirror (yet again) to see if it was actually cooperating with him. He had gotten it cut a few weeks ago and he still wasn’t convinced that it was ‘just a trim’ like his barber had claimed it to be. It had also recently decided to have a mind of its own, now parting in the middle as opposed to the deeper part on the left, and he blew it out of his eyes in a huff. There was nothing he could do about it now except will it to grow via vitamins and prayers.

“H, you’ve changed a million times, you’ve run your fingers through your hair a million times, and you look like a million bucks,”

He turned his head to offer Niall a sour look in return, because although his pep talk full of good intentions, it wasn’t helping. He laughed and placed a hand on Harry’s knee, giving it an affirming pat. “I’m serious, and I know _you’re_ serious because you pulled out the black skinny jeans, I haven’t seen you squeeze yourself into those in a very along time,” he added with an exaggerated eyebrow wiggle.

Harry laughed and shrugged innocently, “I don’t know what you’re talking about Niall. It’s a Christmas party after all, so I got dressed up,”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that kid.”

The truth was, he had been telling himself that for most of the day, otherwise he would have driven himself crazy well before noon. The entire events of the previous evening didn’t even seem like they had been real when he had woken up that morning, but when he received a text from Louis just as he was arriving at school that said he couldn’t wait to see him later, he knew that it had actually happened and he wasn’t some wildly hot figment of Harry’s imagination. He was lonely okay, so you could never be too sure if the mind was playing tricks on you.

They exchanged a few easy texts back and forth, mostly filled with practical information like the time and place of that nights event, and if it was okay for Niall to tag along. It wasn’t that Harry was afraid to go alone, but Niall was a good plus one because no matter what happened, you would be guaranteed to have a laugh. Plus he could be left to his own devices; there was no one else Harry knew who had more random acquaintances than him, so whenever they went out he usually ran into one of them, which was probably bound to happen this evening as well.

That being said, everything had been going along swimmingly until he had gotten home to change, because this is where he had gone into panic mode. He hadn’t been interested in anyone since the whole Wes debacle, and now there was a potential someone who was actually interested in him back and he didn’t think he had an outfit that said ‘yes I want to have sex with you, but not tonight’ because yes he was a healthy, human, twenty eight year old man who had excellent eye sight. And his eyes were not immune to Louis looking the way he did, and his mind was not immune to thinking about how his rough hands would feel grabbing his bare ass.

After a long, cold shower he strode back over to his closet with determination, rummaging through the somewhat organized piles until he found the holy grail – his over dyed, jet black skinny jeans that had a coating on them so they appeared to have a leathery look. He decided to pair them with a plain white t-shirt because his heeled boots had shiny silver hardware adorning them and he wanted to wear his red YSL coat with the black velvet trimmed collar, so he didn’t want to look like he was trying _that_ hard. But you know, just hard enough. He tried not to focus on the word hard for too long though.

He allowed himself one last glimpse of his hair while the Uber driver silently judged him, making him grumble about knocking a star off their rating (which he would not actually do) as Niall pushed him out of the door.

They stood outside of the shop gazing up at the sign as a gust of blustery winter wind blew through them, with Niall whistling his recognition beside him, “Ohh this place, we’ve probably walked by this a dozen times, isn’t that funny?”

Harry nodded in silence, unable to wrap his head around the fact that yes they have walked by it a handful of times, and somehow Louis ended up with his book? The universe was being pretty loud about something that’s for sure.

Niall stepped towards the door, pulling it open and waving Harry in with a grin, “After you,”

“Thank you sir.”

The party goers were off to a full head start when they stepped into the open space, the room festively decorated in sparkling whites and rich reds, with a sound system blasting Buble and a fully stocked bar situated a few feet away.

Niall clamped a hand on Harry’s shoulder, his lips firmly pressed together as he nodded, clearly impressed. “This is my kind of party already,"

They both plucked a glass of wine off a passing tray, thanking the server with a smile, when they spotted Louis waving at them, somehow looking even more devastatingly handsome than the night before.

Harry sucked in a breath as they crossed the room, taking in Louis’ soft fringe, the vibrant blue sweater that brought out his eyes and how much excitement was behind them as he waited for Harry to get closer. Honestly, his smile could have lit up the entire room and Harry couldn’t believe it was being directed at him.

“Oh great, you guys made it!”

Niall clasped his extended hand, shaking back with genuine enthusiasm. “Of course, and thanks for the invite by the way,”

“My pleasure, plus it is Christmas. Tis the season of the more the merrier, quite literally,” Louis turned to look over his shoulder, waving his hand out behind him. “Zayn, Liam, come here for a sec,” Louis faced them again, while two more handsome men joined him at his side. “This is Harry and his mate Niall,”

Harry could only gape at them awe and ponder how anyone ever got any work done around here.

“And these are my business partners Zayn Malik and Liam Payne. They also happen to be boyfriends, even though I’ve been calling them husbands for at least the last five years, give or take and together we make up the T.P.M Creative namesake that you see ever so humbly plastered all over this place.”

They all laughed at Louis’ introduction, exchanging pleasantries and handshakes, with Zayn honing his unreadable eyes in on Harry. “That is a fucking excellent coat by the way,”

Harry felt the immediate flush in his chest and hoped his cheeks didn’t match the color of his coat as he smoothed a hand down the front of it. “Oh, thank you, I thought it seemed festive.”

Niall chortled, somehow already on his second glass of wine. “I always tell him he’s going to end up like the old woman who lived in her shoe, except he’ll be suffocating under piles of his coats,”

Liam nudged Zayn’s shoulder with a grin, “We could totally work with that space, hey babe?”

Harry laughed easily, already feeling like they were all long lost friends. “I might have to take you up on that offer,”

Louis clasped a hand to his forehead with a dramatic groan. “Harry, please tell me you have furniture in your house,”

“Yes Louis, I do.”

“IKEA furniture doesn’t count love,”

Harry pouted his lips, kicking a silver toed boot out at Louis, “Heyyyyy,”

Zayn cleared his throat, causing them to have to tear their eyes away from each other. His own eyes glimmered mischievously like they knew something Harry didn’t. “How about Li and I show Niall around the shop? Then we’ll go mingle for a bit and let you two...yeah...” he trained off with a bemused smile.

Harry shot Niall a look of concern, because he didn’t think it would be polite to ditch him already. “Oh, will you be okay?”

Niall looked at him like he had grown an extra head. “H, there’s free booze everywhere. I’m more than okay,””

“Alright, we’ll catch up with you guys later then.”

He saw them off with a wave and when Harry turned back to give Louis all of his undivided attention, he quickly darted his eyes away, pretending instead to be very interested in the sprig of rosemary floating around in his drink. Which, fair. Harry nudged his toe into his shin, eyes questioning, “What?”

Louis opened his mouth to respond, but whatever he was about to say quickly died there as his eyes slowly traveled down to Harry’s legs, making their way back up to his face several long seconds later. “Are you...are you wearing leather pants?”

Unable to read Louis’ response, he felt a bit silly now as he glanced down at them himself. “No, it’s actually this material that makes them look that way, it’s kind of—

The feel of Louis’ fingers gently wrapping around his wrist startled him mid-sentence, his eyes filled with amusement. “Harry you really don’t have to explain what your jeans are made of, I want to take them off you either way,”

“Oh wow.”

Louis stepped well into his personal space, moving their glasses to an empty spot at the bar. He reached his hands up to Harry’s face, cupping his palms around his cheeks. “You’re so bloody adorable, Jesus,”

Harry rolled his eyes, attempting to pry Louis’ hands off his face, “Stop it,”

“I can’t! It’s all I’ve thought about all day!”

He snorted and finally eased Louis’ hands away, letting them fall down between them. “Thinking about me being adorable does not sound very riveting.”

Louis blew out an exasperated sigh, “Listen, I’m pretty sure my dicks been hard for almost twenty four hours, so please don’t underestimate how much I want to have adorable sex with you,” he rubbed a thumb among the side of Harry’s hand, his reassuring smile curling into every crevice of Harry’s heart. “And I don’t mean tonight by the way. I just wanted you to know that I do.”

It’s a good thing they were surrounded by drinks, because right now Harry needed about a thousand of them. “Okay, and I want you to know that I’m on the page as you,” Louis was quick to interrupt him with a poke to the chest, “Ha, book pun!” Harry grabbed his fingers, miming biting them and also testing his willpower at the same time, because as much as he wanted to put them into his mouth and suck on them, he didn’t. “Seriously, I want that too, but in the meantime…”

“In the meantime what,” Louis asked with suspicion. 

Harry walked his fingers up Louis’ chest, digging them into shoulders as he leaned in to whisper at his ear, “Let’s go make out in your office.”

Louis slid his own fingers into Harry’s jacket, tucking them under the bottom of his t-shirt to tease at the warm skin on his belly, smiling when he felt the shiver go through him. “How do you know I have an office, hmm?”

He tried his best to collect a bunch of words to string together as Louis continued to stroke his calloused fingertips up to his ribs, slotting them there in a perfect fit. “I, uh, um, well, you are the boss sometimes right, I just figured—

“Harry,”

He hadn’t even realized he had closed his eyes until he had to peel them back open to look back down at Louis.

“I’m the boss all the time.”

…

And now here they were defiling Louis’ desk a half an hour later, with him on his knees and sucking Harry’s dick like it was his actual Christmas present and he’d never gotten a better gift before. He had his own hand shoved down his pants that was getting himself off in unison, and all Harry could do was stare at the top of Louis’ bobbing head and try to be quiet.

It really had started out innocent enough as they snuck down the hall that housed his office, pressing up against the door as soon as Louis kicked it closed and kissing each other tentatively between hushed giggles. But when Louis reached down for a handful of Harry’s ass and he suddenly remembered the jeans he was wearing, his eyes glazed over into a dark, lusty blue and it was game over from there.

Harry also felt kind of bad because they had both said that they weren’t going to have sex tonight, so he felt like he was blowing all the rules already. Well, Louis was anyways. “Uh, Louis, technically this, uh, oh god, this isn’t sex, right?”

Louis glanced up at him, slowing sucking his lips off his dick and almost bringing Harry down to his knees as well in the process. “Babe trust me, you’ll know when we’ve had sex because you’ll be feeling me inside of you for an entire week,”

“Ahhh, oh…fuck.”

Oh _fuck_.

Well, that just happened.

Harry’s eyes fluttered back open just as Louis was wiping the side of his face with a smirk. “Interesting. Does someone have a pain kink then?”

He gulped. It might be too soon to admit something like that. “Maybe,” he started to crouch down, reaching for Louis’ hips, “Can I?”

Louis shook his head, “No I finished a minute ago, and I definitely got some on your jeans.” He plucked a few tissues out from the box on his desk, passing them to Harry with a guilty, crooked smile. “Sorry about that,”

“No worries, my jackets long enough to hide the evidence.”

Louis leaned on the edge of his desk as he shimmied his jeans back up his thighs, nodding at Harry to stand in-between his legs after. He happily obliged, allowing Louis to pull him in by the waist. His smile was so soft, and Harry’s heart felt similar. “You know even though you’re right in front of me now, I keep thinking about when I can see you again,”

Harry smiled down at his feet, shaking his head. He met Louis’ eyes, leaning over to touch his forehead to his, “Whenever you want to.”

Louis squeezed his sides, rubbing his hands up them afterwards. He was already so tender and with Harry, he would be a fool to not want to see him as much as humanly possible. “I kind of have this really cheesy idea,”

“Louis, you’re talking to the guy who gave someone a romantic book with my phone number in it. I am made of cheese.”

“Right, well, as you know it’s almost Christmas and I was thinking, what if we went on a date every day before then? They don’t have to be big, or extravagant, I just want to do something with you, or even see you, no matter how long or short it is.” He bit his lip, watching cautiously for Harry’s reaction. “Is that something you might be interested in?”

Harry leaned in and captured his lips, murmuring quietly against them, “Are you suggesting that we do a twelve dates of Christmas, Louis?”

Louis laughed into his mouth, bringing his fingers up to twist through the wispy curls tickling the back of his neck. “Leave it to you to come up with an equally cheesy name for it,”

“Look at us, two peas in a pod already.”

They shared another long kiss, reveling in the taste of each other and breaking apart at the same time because they both knew if they kept going one of them was going to be on their knees again. They both inspected each other to make sure they looked somewhat presentable, giving their jeans one last dusting off before making their way back out to the bustling party.

Throughout the rest of the night they’d find each other’s eyes across the room, the smiles exchanged between them full excitement of what was to come.

“So, is it Louis or Mr. Darcy?”

Harry peered over at Niall, who was well past normal person inebriated, but on him only the well trained eye could tell. “What do you mean?”

“Come on H, if you had to pick one, who would it be?”

Now, Harry has known Niall since they were in sixth form, so he knows that Niall knows the only Mr. Darcy for Harry is Colin Firth, so when they talk about this delicate subject matter he never has to preference it. “Niall, you know that its Colin forever and always.”

Except that when he watched Louis laugh with his head thrown back and saw his hand clutch onto the stomach that Harry was dying to suck kisses into, he knew that Colin was definitely on his way out.

And Niall, sweet Niall, pretended that he didn’t know that Harry was definitely lying and smiled at him knowingly in return.

“Niall, do you know where I can get three French hens by tomorrow?”

“Harry I say this love, but what the actual fuck.”

+

If you had asked Louis what he would be doing on the evening before his thirty first birthday at the beginning of the month, he probably would have said ‘nothing special’, which actually computes to eating an entire cake to himself while watching Love Actually for the hundredth time. Having a birthday on Christmas Eve had always been a challenge if you were trying to put together any plans, so he rarely made any. He had made an exception the year prior though, kissing his twenties goodbye with a wild weekend in Ibiza that he thankfully doesn’t remember for the most part, aside from the handful of videos that Zayn and Liam continued to torture him with every couple of months.

Fully naked save for a sparkly birthday crown while singing ABBA songs at the top of his lungs was not one of his finer moments, but a moment to be savored none the less.

Though he kind of had a feeling his birthday suit would be utilized again from the way Harry was looking at him from across his kitchen island, where Louis sat nursing a glass of wine while Harry was putting together a gourmet dinner with the ease of Gordon Ramsey.

They had made good on their promise to see each other every day, with Harry making a valiant effort to bring the actual twelve days of Christmas to life. The day after the party he had shown up at his work with a bouquet of sunflowers - Louis’ favorite, and how Harry knew that and found them out of season was absolute witchcraft - plus an offer to take Louis out for eggs and French toast, which was oddly specific and something Louis only clued into when Harry proudly proclaimed it was in honor of the third day, “Three pieces of toast, eggs come from hens, how did I do?”

Louis could only laugh and kiss the syrup off his lips, wondering how in the hell he was going to work four calling birds into the theme for the next day and the more he thought about it, the song was really heavy on the feathery friends, what was that all about anyways?

Because he wasn’t known for thinking things completely through, he took them on a walk in Hyde Park with the hopes of hearing song birds chirping in the trees, not realizing they would be completely freezing their asses off five minutes in, and that even the birds were smart enough to stay inside during this weather. But Harry being the charmer that he was said that it was perfect anyways, inviting Louis over to his flat afterwards to warm up with some homemade hot chocolate, which turned into them warming each other up in a tangle of limbs on Harry’s cushy oversized couch.

The bonus factor? He had gotten Harry to chant ‘Louis, Louis, Louis, Louis’ while they wanked each other off like they were teenagers, so that had to count for something.

Day five and it’s golden rings was a little bit easier to navigate, because it translated into milkshakes and a plate of onion rings at Five Guys during lunch hour, and even though Louis teased Harry for being a strawberry shake guy, the taste of it on his tongue when they shared a lingering kiss goodbye was a level of Harry heaven he had not reached yet.

They decided to abandon the remainder of the song in favor of spending the rest of their dates watching horrible made for TV Christmas movies from the Hallmark channel, baking cookies that never saw the light of day outside of their kitchens, splitting pizza and wings at the pub, and having many orgasms in-between all of it. Louis also took Harry to see the Nutcracker to cover the ladies dancing and lords a leaping, mostly because Harry had mentioned how much he had loved going to the ballet and ever since then Louis had been day dreaming about him in a tutu, so it was really beneficial for both of them.

So now after two weeks of a whirlwind romance, they were celebrating Louis’ birthday a day early, obviously due to family holiday obligations, otherwise Louis would have set up camp in Harry’s flat well into the New Year and beyond. He’d save that for a later conversion though.

Louis hummed along to the Charlie Brown soundtrack that was playing quietly in the background, noting the barely there snowflakes that had started to fall outside the window, sparkling against the darkened winter sky. He took another sip of the rich red Harry had gotten to pair with their meal, a beef wellington that looked like it could be served in one of Gordon’s restaurants.

“You know that you could have made me macaroni and cheese out of the box and I would have been happy _and_ impressed, you didn’t need to go all out like this,”

Harry shot him a look that had him biting back a giggle because sometimes he really looked like the disgruntled emoji come to life, and Louis could not understand how he still managed to be hot while doing so. “I take offence that you would ever think powdered cheese would be welcome in this household.”

He finally let go of the laugh he had been holding in, shaking his head as he topped off both of their glasses. “I swear you’re an alien, you’re literally the only person I know that doesn’t enjoy fake cheese,”

Harry leaned across the countertop, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “That’s because there’s so much ‘gouda’ cheese out there for me to enjoy, Louis.”

Louis lightly flicked his finger against the tip of his stupidly cute crinkled up nose. “God I hate you.”

Harry caught his finger between his teeth and slowly dragged his tongue around it, smirking, “No you don’t.”

“Okay, but I will if you keep testing me like this, I haven’t even seen you fully naked yet.” He pouted for emphasis because it was true and picturing Harry’s long, pale body writhing around in pile of messy blankets and sheets had taken up far too much of his time these past couple of days. And he doesn’t know why he just lied to himself because he’s actually been thinking about it since the moment he walked up to Harry in the pub.

“That might be something I can help you out with after dinner,” Harry moved over to the stove as the timer went off, reaching down to pull out the wellington and deliberately shaking his ass in Louis’ face at the same time.

“But what if I want to have _you_ for dinner?” He definitely wasn’t above begging at this point.

Harry rounded the island and made his way over to his preferred destination, which was the now Harry shaped space between Louis’ thighs, and he didn’t mind that this was Harry’s favorite place to be one bit. He draped his arms over Louis’ shoulders, threading his fingers through the ends of his hair that probably should have been trimmed weeks ago. “Patience is a virtue you know,”

“It’s not my virtue.”

Harry rolled his eyes, sliding his hands back down to Louis’ chest, his palm coming to rest over his stuttering heart. “Do you really want to eat a cold dinner?”

Louis leaned forward, drawing his tongue along the side of Harry’s neck until he found his ear, catching it between his teeth. “Babe, that’s going to be my midnight snack after having you as a whole meal,”

Harry’s answering moan came out as half a laugh as well, “Oh my god, what a line.”

Louis moved his hand down between them, sliding a finger over the zipper of Harry’s jeans. “And yet you’re still hard,”

“You could recite the entire twelve days of Christmas song twice over and my dick would be paying attention,” he bounced on his toes impatiently as Louis’ fingers grazed over the outline of his cock straining against his jeans, seemingly moments away from stomping his foot as well. “Louisss, stop teasing me,”

He finally stilled his hand, nodding towards the beautifully set kitchen table, “Alright then, let’s have dinner.”

Harry furiously shook his head and yanked him up from the stool, leading him down the hall towards his room. “No way,”

Louis’ laughter trailed behind them as Harry pushed him down onto the bed, crawling over him with hooded eyes. Louis dropped his head back, folding his arms behind him with an eyebrow cocked and a grin quirking up the side of his mouth. “What happened to patience being a virtue?”

Harry sat back on his hunches and pulled his shirt over his head, tossing it the side and immediately attached himself back to Louis’ lips.

“Fuck virtue and fuck me instead.”

…

They ended up sitting down to eat shortly after midnight which had Harry sticking birthday candles into the flakey crust of a beef wellington with a huge Cheshire cat grin. It was a fairly ridiculous scene, and set the tone for Harry’s equally ridiculous birthday song. “Happy birthday to Lou, happy birthday to Lou,” he paused to tap a finger to his lips as he contemplated the rest of his lyrics. His eyes brightened when he started up again. “You gave me three orgasms, so thank you Lou too.”

Louis clapped and blew out the candles, taking the knife Harry had offered him out of his hands, “Impressive,”

“Thanks.”

He cut into the thick golden crust, dishing them both out a generous serving and smacked his lips greedily when he took his first bite. “This is so strange to be eating right now, but Jesus Harry, it is fucking delicious,”

Harry preened under his compliment. “I’m so glad.”

“And thank you again love, really, this was such an amazing start to my birthday.”

Harry shuffled his chair in closer to the table, reaching out for Louis’ hand to link their fingers together. “You’re welcome. Thank _you_ for the last two weeks,”

An intimate smile was passed between them before they sat back and tucked into their food, eating in comfortable silence with the exception of the sleepy playlist Harry had put on to go with the dim lighting and their post sex haze.

Louis took a sip of his water and leaned back in his chair, happily sated. “Are you looking forward to going home?”

Harry set his cutlery down on his plate, mirroring Louis’ stance as he rest his hands over his stomach. “Yeah, I don’t get there often enough for sure. My mother, much like me, loves to feed people, so I’m sure I’ll be rolling myself home next week,”

Louis chuckled at the thought of Harry being rolled around ala Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka. “And you’re back on New Year’s?”

Harry nodded, “Mmm hmm, and you?”

Louis stifled a yawn behind the back of his hand, nodding back in response. “Same as you, I don’t get back as often as I should. The girls are excited to see me, though I’m sure it’ll be short lived,”

“And, um, you’re home on New Year’s too?”

“Oh, yeah, yeah, that morning for sure.”

Harry fiddled with the cross pendant on his necklace, a nervous habit of his that Louis had already come to recognize. Louis reached over to steady his hand, covering it with his own. “And I was hoping I could spend it with you,”

Louis watched the immediate sigh of relief pour throughout Harry’s body as he chewed his bottom lip, a shy smile dancing there. “Even if I come home looking like a blueberry?”

He picked up his hand, bringing the top of it to his lips, grazing a kiss along his knuckles. “Especially if you look like a blueberry.”

Harry let out a loud barking laugh, his messy mop of fringe falling into his eyes, leaving him looking beautiful and debauched. Louis already hated that he had to wait another week to see him again. “So, what do you want to do?”

The first thing that came to Louis’ mind was another horrible pun, apparently Harry was rubbing off on him, in every single way possible. “The fitting answer is you, but Zayn and Liam are hosting a party at their house if you’re into that?”

“Both of those things definitely sound like fun to me,” Harry suddenly seemed to have an ‘aha’ moment and stood up, walking over to a suede book bag that had been abandoned by the couch. He reached in and pulled out a dark red bound book, holding it out to Louis with a hesitant smile when he made his way back to him. “I got this for you, for your birthday,”

Louis smoothed a hand over the worn down cover, hitting Harry with a cheeky, teasing grin. “Was your number in this one too?”

Harry rolled his eyes and puffed out a sigh, a rosy glow dusting his cheeks. “ _No_.”

“Alright, I was just making sure,” he drew a finger over the etched golden letters, meeting Harry’s soft eyes with his own curious ones. “Romeo and Juliet? We’re not foreshadowing here I hope,”

“No, no one’s dying.” He took the book from Louis’ hands, flipping through the pages until he found the passage he was looking for. He flushed again, licking his lips before he started to speak. “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer’s lease hath all too short a date,” he closed it shut, handing it back over to Louis. “I won’t recite the whole thing, but we’ve been covering it in class and it made me think of you, because you’re so bright and so lovely, and that reminds me of the summer. Or I should say you remind me of the summer,” he smiled after he finished his heart stopping monologue, stepping back into his familiar spot. “And that’s a nice feeling to have.”

That brought Louis up to his feet where he wrapped Harry into a bone crushing hug, pressing warm kisses along the side of his face. “Harry, that is literally the sweetest fucking thing that anyone has ever done for me,”

“Really?”

Louis held him close in his arms, rocking them back and forth like they were both overgrown babies, and that was probably an accurate description right now. “Yes, _really_.” He pushed back so that he could see Harry’s face, because he had something of his own to declare. “I seriously cannot wait to see what the next year is going to bring for us, and I know I’m going to enjoy you in every single season in every single way, but I already know that fall is going to be my favorite,”

Harry nodded knowingly, “Pumpkin spiced season is the best season.”

Louis shook his head. “No, it’s because it makes me think of you,”

“Why?”

“Because I’m already falling for you.”

*The End*

“I never felt magic crazy as this

I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea

I never held emotion in the palm of my hand

Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree

But now you’re here

Brighten my northern sky”


End file.
